Mental Cases Poem Commentary

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‘Mental Cases’, written by Wilfred Own, is a poem about the devastating effects of modern warfare and the men who die and suffer through it. Owen candidly states the truth about war and how it affects the men who fight in it. ‘Mental Cases’ is about World War One and the shell shock men endured when they came back from war. He uses imagery, diction and irony to make his ideas more clear to his audience. The first stanza directly addresses the reader, he opens with two rhetorical questions, “Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?” (1) These sentences are grammatically incorrect and use distorted language. This is symbolic of the disturbed and unstable minds of the soldiers. Using these questions he directly speaks to his audience as well as incorporating a major theme of the poem, insanity. “Drooping tongues from jaws that slob like relish.” (3) This line uses imagery to metaphorically compare men to animals and show how bad the condition of the soldiers really is. You visibly see the image the author is creating, men walking around with their jaws down, and tongue hanging out slobbering. He uses this imagery to show you the animalistic side of the soldiers and how they have lost control of their bodies as well as their minds. This is supported by the imagery used to describe the men’s physical appearance as well Owens asking another rhetorical question. “Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?” (6) His diction in this sentence is overwhelmingly powerful. He questions cutting large painful slits around worried eyes. A repulsive question showing the reader the endeavors the men faced in war. All of the rhetorical questions in the first stanza are symbolic of the insanity of the men fighting. The opening lines of the poem draw ironic parallels to the Bible. “What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence did they come?” The irony of
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